The Dogon record their ancestry through a patrilineal system. Each Dogon community is headed by one male elder. This chief head is the oldest living son of the ancestor of the local branch of the family. Within this patrilineal system local couples will marry monogamously, although polygyny is occasionally known.

They call Sirius B Po Tolo. This star was the seed of the Milky Waygalaxy and "navel" of the entire universe, according to the Dogon mythological explanation of the universe. They describe the universe as "infinite, but measurable", and filled with many yalu ulo, or spiral star systemss, including the one with our own sun.

According to the Dogon perception of the universe, most of the universe is part of the "external" star system, while nearer to Earth is the "internal" star system. The stars in the "internal" system include many that they claim affect the lives of people of Earth and play a part in human history, including not only the Sirius binary/ternary system, but also Orion, Pleiades and others.

The tribe neighboring the Dogon, the Bozo, have a similar mythology about Sirius in the sky and refer to it as the "Eye Star."

According to some, the Dogons came in contact with an amphibiousalien race, the Nommos, about 5000 years ago. The Nommos came from a planet orbiting Sirius and passed on information regarding the star system.

Carl Sagan, among others, agrees with Temple that the Dogons could not have known about Sirius B without contact with an advanced civilization. However, Sagan argues that the Dogons could have found out about the Sirius neighbor by contact with terrestial advanced civilizations.

The Dogons have had a traditional interest in astronomy. By the 1920s, the Dogons had had contact with western civilizations. It is only natural that conversations with visitors would eventually turn to astronomy. In fact, in the 1920s, there had been a great deal of press in scientific journals regarding Sirius and its neighboring star. Since Sirius A, which is visible to the naked eye, was a part of their mythology, it is reasonable that the visitors passed on information regarding its companion and its period of orbit and other information regarding the star.

By the time Temple visited the Dogon's in the 1970s, they had had a great deal of contact with the western world and had time to incorporate Sirius B into their religion. To skeptics, it is unreasonable to assume that the Dogon's only source of information on the Sirius stars was extraterrestrial in origin.

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